Monday, October 02, 2017

Lack of needed gun legislation is mostly the fault of Congress

We do need better gun control laws. More curbs on assault weapons and a bit more registration at least. Congress is to blame for lack of legislation here. It doesn't seem to matter, as much, who the president is. Obama favored this kind of legislation, but Congress was the bottleneck. Trump, of course, wouldn't even try to make these changes, but that's kind of a moot point I guess with this Congress.

During Obama's term, I heard that even with Democrats controlling Congress, by a slim margin, bills couldn't be passed due to filibuster in the Senate. The problem is mostly from Republicans, but also some from Democrats. We can change the nature of Congress when we vote in 2018.

Some folks are cynical enough to say we can't make a difference and voting doesn't matter. I know, one person's vote is just a drop in the bucket so it's hard to feel that it makes a difference, but when the population votes, I still believe it does make a difference.

Laws don't, of course, magically solve the problem of violence and gun violence. Much of it is cultural. Culture needs to change also. Laws may not be the panacea, but they can help. From what I hear, Australia has had some great success in curbing gun violence.